July 24, 2015

I've had several people ask me for linkys to some of my favorite healthy recipes. I've had other people ask me to just post all my weekly menus from the past, present, and until the end of time. Ha. I won't be doing that. I will post a prototype of our weekly menus, though, with some linkys to the recipes I've tried lately that I love.

Mon
B: hot nine grain cereal (I get mine from Kitchen Kneads in 25 lb bags) and banana smoothies
L: roasted cabbage (usually without bacon, but sometimes with--yum)
D: tacos with lentil-walnut meat substitute (don't be scared by the meat substitute--my children, husband, and I all LOVED it and we are not vegetarians. I use it because it adds more lentils into our diets)
Snack: peanuts and apple slices

Wed
B: oat pancakes with yogurt and maple syrup dressing
L: roasted cabbage (we love that stuff) with a slice of bread
D: plain old white pancakes because we have them whenever I don't manage to get supper on the table and that happens at least once a week
Snack: banana smoothie

Fri
B: hot cereal (we eat it the most of anything for breakfast) with scrambled eggs (I always add onions and green peppers to our scrambled eggs because I love it. We also add mushrooms, spinach, asparagus--a favorite--or any other veggies I have on hand that sound yummy)
L: whole wheat toast with peanut butter and bananas
D: baked potato, fried green beans, cucumber and tomato slices (this is one of my favorite meals)
Snack: celery sticks with peanut butter

Sat
B: oat pancakes with yogurt maple syrup
L: leftovers (when I make rice I make double what I need so I can have one quick meal ready to go--a bowl of rice. I usually broil some zuchinni to toss in and some scrambled eggs. My children love this and call it a "rice bowl" though I think they use the term loosely. Bulgar wheat also works well for this).
S: Sandwich with some sort of fruit. I dislike cooking after a long, physical work day.
Snack: nothing. My kids grab carrots if they are hungry.

There you go--a one week menu. I usually have four nice meals per week, and the other three nights we munge along with lesser meals. I used to shop for one week, but now I can't fit all the milk and fresh produce in the fridge so I switched to shopping for three days. I find I waste WAY less now because if something happens and meals get switched around, there is more wiggle room. Someday, though, I'd like a second fridge.

*Important note for LINDSAY: I make my homemade frozen burritos by taking one tortilla, adding a bit of the lentil-walnut meat substitute, sauteed green peppers and onions, and one scrambled egg. Then I roll that up, wrap it in saran wrap and stick three into one ziploc bag. When we eat one, we microwave for two minutes and douse with green salsa. Yum!

ONE BONUS RECIPE; this is the recipe Timothy wants me to make and have on hand all the time for his snacking pleasure. It is a granola bar, but there is no sugar, so you should think of it as something else entirely or you won't like it. I like it because it is pretty healthy and filling, and I like all the crunch and chewiness. So--a healthy alternative to a granola bar. It is also gluten free, which matters to some of you and I like because I'm always trying to diversify my grains: http://ohsheglows.com/2014/05/20/feel-good-hearty-granola-bars/

March 22, 2015

I've been trying to compile a required reading list for my oldest. She will be going into grade 7 and she is shifting in her reading from lazy, easy reading (how many Hardy Boy books are there???????) to pushing herself a little. I'm glad because I was starting to wonder how I would push her upward and onward. I read above my level because I wanted to read what my older siblings were reading. I'm already noticing that Emeline (age 8) does this as well. Since Miriam is the oldest she hasn't really had much impetus to push into the YA genre.

With that in mind, I decided to put together a required reading list for her 7th and 8th grade years. The idea is that she will read one book off the list a week. Most of the books can be read whenever, but a few--with similar themes or same historical time period--have to be read at the same time. That way we'll be working on history and/or science along with LA, some of the time anyway.

A few fun things have happened as I've been working on this list. One is that Miriam got wind of the list (I had to ask her if she'd read a few titles), she read through the list, and now she's been reading books from the list. Back to the drawing board again to add more! Not that I mind, funny girl.

The other fun thing is my perusal of every site I can find that suggesst good nonfiction titles. I didn't fall in love with nonfiction until college so I didn't read much YA nonfiction. In putting together the list I had to include some books on other people's recommendation (always scary) and debate internally about books I love. Some made the cut (Frederick Douglass's autobiography) and some didn't (The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary). Some were too old, some too young, some about topics that I don't find interesting but Miriam does (forensic science), or vice-versa.

It is such a joy to read about, think about, make lists about, and plan for books!!!

Bibliophile: a person who loves books, or, alternately, me!

Here's my mostly finished list, including the books Miriam has recently read that need to be replaced. If you have any thoughts, suggestions, comments on quality or age level of the books (or anything else!)--please, I'm seeking after those things.

Yes, I realize I have more books than weeks of school, but I thought that would give her some ownership in her choices.

Thanks for your help!!!!!!

Absolutely Normal Chaos, Sharon Creech

The Egypt Game

The Giver

Maniac Magee

Number the Stars

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Summer of My German Soldier

The Watsons Go to Birmingham

Kira-Kira

The Dark is Rising series

Among the Hidden

The View from Saturday

The Moorchild

My Louisiana Sky

Holes

Homecoming and Dicey's Song

Esperanza Rising

The Fledgling

Little Women

Incident at Hawk's Hill

The Call of the Wild

Jacob Have I Loved

No Promises in the Wind

The Jungle Book

The Hero and the Crown

Freak the Mighty

Tangerine

Far North

Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman

The Outsiders

Across Five Aprils

Adam of the Road

Black Beauty

Cheaper by the Dozen

Christy

Girl of the Limberlost

The Hiding Place

Invincible Louisa

Johnny Tremain

Princess and the Goblin

Rifles for Watie

Snow Treasure

A Wrinkle in Time

A Christmas Carol

A Long Walk to Water

Main Street by Sinclair Lewis

Treasure Island

The Call of the Wild

The Moves Make the Man

The Red Pony

The Devil's Arithmetic

The Andromeda Strain

Jackaroo

Lyddie

Up a Road Slowly

The Prisoner of Zenda

Smith by Leon Garfield

Westmark

Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson

NONFICTION

Breaker Boys: How a Photograph Helped End Child Labor by
Michael Burgan

March 3, 2015

My nine year old niece recommended Laura Amy Schlitz's Splendors and Glooms and I am so glad she did!! First Miriam read it and loved it and then I read it and loved it. It is a Dickensian novel for upper elementary/middle school (but delightful for all ages). It has some dark magic in it but nothing too creepy. I thoroughly enjoyed it and put it in my basket at amazon to make sure I add it to my collection. You might be familiar with this author. She wrote Good Masters! Sweet Ladies: Voices from a Medieval Village, which won the Newbery. She also wrote The Hero Schliemann: The Dreamer who Dug for Troy--one of my children's very favorite biographies. In short, we're going to make sure all of Ms. Schlitz's books wind up on our bookshelf. She's fabulous.

We listened to Igraine the Brave by Cornelia Funke on audio book awhile ago and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. So much so that I bought a copy for Emeline (age 8) for Christmas. Since then she's read it twice (that I know about--sometimes I sleep and miss things) and has declared it her "favorite book ever." If you have a child in elementary school who likes humorous adventure stories, I recommend this one.

We had Freight Train by Donald Crews when Cowen was a baby/toddler, but it was destroyed as only truly beloved books can be destroyed. I figured Oskar would like it as much as my other kids had and so I gave it to him for Christmas. It hasn't replaced Babies by Gyo Fujikawa as his favorite book, but it is a very close second. My children were overjoyed when Oskar unwrapped the book because they all remember it and love it. The best Christmas book reaction, though, was when Oskar unwrapped Jamberry, another book that was destroyed out of sheer love, and Miriam grabbed it right out of Oskar's hands and squealed, "Jamberry!" in pure delight. Awesome.

My dad loaned me Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford and I loved it. I rarely read adult books, truth be told, as YA was always my happy place, but I'll be purchasing this book for my library. I loved everything about it.

I am always so, so, so, so excited when one of my children read one of my favorite books and love it as much as I do. Miriam just finished Sabriel, my favorite Garth Nix book. She then promptly read the sequel the next day. She loved it, I love it, anyone who likes fantasy will love it. Read it. Gold Star Book.

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Hello! I am a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom of eight children (ages 13, 11, 10, 7, 5, 3, 1, and 8 months). In my previous existence I taught school--primarily history and English, but also ESL, and, during one bizarre year, math. I started teaching in a middle school where I discovered the hilarity of seventh graders and then later I moved to a high school and taught tenth and eleventh graders. I eventually switched again to the Education Department at Weber State University where I taught several ESL courses and a social studies methods course for elementary teachers. Writing curriculum is one of my passions. Sharing good books is another. Homeschooling--with all the frustration, fulfillment, frolic, and farce that it engenders--is another.